Revenue Protection for a Leading Water Utility

About

Detailed Case Study

Faster Detection of Unmapped Consumers, Leakage, and Backflow Cases

About the Customer

A major water utility manages over 480,000 smart meters across commercial, and industrial customers. Their goal was to enhance revenue protection, compliance and reduce non-revenue water (NRW).

At a Glance: The Challenges

Inconsistent data: Meter readings often occurred at different cadences making it hard to test for completeness.

Delayed anomaly detection:  Intermittent/silent meters were only discovered downstream at billing.

Revenue leakage: There were meters that remain unmapped over time, but consuming which added to expenditure.

Operational risks: There was no single source of truth for Operations, Billing and Customer Service Resolution (CSR).

Compliance issues: Lack of a fast and auditable framework in response to backflow incidents. 

How the Customer Used Grid

The utility implemented Grid's Operations Intelligence Platform to unify data flows, automate anomaly detection and improve governance.

Cadence-aware completeness: Comparing expected vs. actual meter readings across regions to surface gaps early.

Leakage detection: Segment-based thresholds (residential vs. industrial) for proactive field operations. 

Backflow monitoring: Sustained reverse flow events  are now engaged and flagged as high-priority safety tickets.

Revenue recovery: Auto-identification of unmapped but consuming meters, which are then routed for resolution.

Unified reporting: Automated O&M and billing reports, eliminating spreadsheets and silos.

Key Benefits

Revenue protection: Closing the loops on unmapped meters and reducing losses

Operational efficiency: Single dash reporting and dashboarding that reduces disputes 

Regulatory confidence: Ensuring meter logs are audit ready for leak, backflow, and consumption events.

Customer service: Proactive anomaly resolution reducing billing shocks and improving trust.

Grid’s Impact

480,000+ active smart meters monitored

424,951 meters communicating (88.2% coverage)

95,430 devices with leak alarms in 72 hours

1,159 backflow incidents detected in first 3 days

Before Grid

  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management
  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management
  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management

After Grid

  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management
  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management
  • Tracks drill hole IDs, drill crew shift management

See how Grid is the trusted digitisation partner for CIO’s & IT Teams at Utilities

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